Multitasking Overdose – Spencer’s Journal

If doing 1 good thing is good, then doing 5 must be better, right? Well, I thought so. Except today I feel completely spent, and have nothing to show for it. Reflecting on this dejection, I have diagnosed myself with a multitasking overdose.

If I’m honest with myself, I have to admit that I’ve spread myself too thin intellectually, and that I’m a failure at 5 things, rather than good at 1.

Unfortunately, I’m failing at all of those. I wanted to do 1 video per week on both L&FF and Baby Scientists. I wanted to write a new story every month for Brothers Whim. I wanted to get Andy’s website up and flooding him with new clients. I wanted to relax with my family, and laugh with our friends. I wanted to solve the world’s problems with Facebook economics conversations. I wanted to design the best Squarespace website ever seen. Yeah. No. None of that is really happening.

I wouldn’t say I am a total failure, but I do feel like one. It seems to come down to unrealistic expectations. My impatience buried me under an impossible load. Now I spend as much time feeling squished and depressed as I do creative and productive.

The straw on this camel’s broken back today was trying to finish this Brother’s Whim story of which you see couple of samples of my amazing artwork (actually, I can only take credit for the stick figures). I thought I could knock it out in 3 hours today. Nine hours later, I realize I’m not even close. I need to redo most of it so that it sucks less.

Take 3 slow breaths. Step away from my computer. Admire my bits of work that I have completed. Remember to enjoy the process since it is just as important as the result. Okay, time for a movie break.

8 Responses to "Multitasking Overdose – Spencer’s Journal"

Why not do a daily/weekly schedule, block out allocation of time to do the tasks that you want to achieve. Like you do at school and college. You have lectures, homework time etc. But allocate the various projects to time slots/days.

What takes priority? what is going to bring money in? what will give you and your ideals the most media exposure?

I know from reading and getting in to conversations with you that you want to highlight small business’s and increase these business’s with websites to a wider audience. Rather than build a bespoke site, have an off the shelf alternative with different text and images to be interchanged. Ultimately economics has to be a big factor on this, personal emotional rewards are rich but what about the financial rewards.

It sounds harsh, however you have finite financial resources and you have a family to consider, so to keep the travel and the adventure going more money needs to be tipped into the travel/living fund. Create a structure of the minimum amount you need to bring in each month, and balance your priorities towards that. You’ve been travelling for a few months now, so the travel savings must have taken a hit, now is the time to star replenishing them and maintaining costs.

I did the time blocking approach, but underestimated the time I would need, and the result was mounting pile of uncompleted tasks. Part of the reason is I need to develop better systems for working smarter, and part of it is that I was just trying to do too much.

I agree completely that economics must be a factor. That is why I have taken on so many projects. I am not sure which endeavors will be the most successful economically, so I have been doing as many as I could. What I am seeing is that a little bit of everything is more a recipe for failure, rather than success. This should have seemed obvious, but I guess I needed to learn the hard way.

Now my challenge is to determine which endeavors I believe have the best chance at success and prioritize on those. It would be nice if we could do everything, but like you said, we only have so much time and money to work with.

It’s all part of the learning experience. Good that you stopped to assess. When I have too much to accomplish I rely on seeking spiritual influence each morning so that I can be selective in a way that leaves me with the fewest regrets at the end of the day/week. I’m sure you do a lot of that already. Thanks for working so hard for my darlings! Love you, Mom (Vivian)

The truth is that somethings will just have to be left undone. I have found that when the to-do list starts piling up the easiest way to shorten it is to just start crossing items off whether they are done or not. Same goes for the inbox; check all –> archive. If there was a really important email then it will get sent again.

Before going to sleep I usually create a to-do list for the next day with a limit of 3 items. Then the next day I work on those 3 items. A fairly minimalist approach but it helps prioritize.

Another thing I would do is create a ‘time income statement’ for weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. Get the recurring items and do whatever you can to streamline (batching, write Standard Operating Procedures, etc.) and automate (website backups, etc.) them as much as possible. Basecamp is great for managing personal stuff also; Driver’s License expirations, permanent residency renwals, time requirements for new citizenships/passports, LLC or corporate filings and minutes, etc. (the more you have the more complicated it can get!). With Standard Operating Procedures created you can easily outsource, when your time starts to get valuable enough.

For example, all my credit cards, both personal and with various companies and LLCs, come due between the 30th and 2nd (you can usually change the due dates if you snoop around enough in the account settings). So I make all credit card payments on the 17th. I try to average about 1 minute per card to review all expenses, forward screenshots, etc. to the appropriate people for different reasons (reimbursement, accounting, etc.).

Also, perhaps I take for granted my ability to focus. Twitter or Facebook at only particular scheduled times. Same with email. I rarely take phone calls (pretty much only from family). It is amazing how much can actually get done when you focus. If you are getting distracted, or distracting yourself, then the big time sinks are in refocusing. It can easily take 10-15 minutes to get ‘in the zone’. I can often create in 30-40 minutes what most people take a 8 hours to do, like drafting a contract, writing piece, etc., in more conventional environments full of distractions (like a typical office work environment).

I am so feeling the same way today so glad to see I am not the only one. I have never thought about it this way before certainly feel this way much these days. Hang in there my friend and thanks for posting your experiences and keep this blog.

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